A salute to Mr. Douglas -- On the Way Out series, Vol. 2, Part 4

 On the Way Out series 

Vol. 2, Part 4

Most of my closest friends know I love movies. I can lose myself for a couple of hours and forget there's a world outside the theatre. And, if it's raining when I leave the theatre, that's even better. The fresh smell after an Arizona downpour would be icing on the cake. If the movie was an action-packed, shoot 'em up Western, even better.

Of course, growing up and living in Arizona, there's a good chance I'd get the movie in, but rain...not happening, unless I could coordinate the movie times with a weather forecast, which includes a 100 percent shot at a desert rain shower, forecasted for the exact same time the final credits would disappear off the theatre screen.

As I said, in an earlier On The Way Out post, men seem to gravitate toward old Westerns. Why? I don't have a clue. It's way above my pay grade. As I have said previously, it may be an outlet, an escape...maybe for some a place to unwind and leave the pressures of everyday life behind.

My favorite actor was Kirk Douglas, who passed away in February of 2020 at the age of 103.

Douglas made 73 films in 60 years of movie-making. I was ten years old when Douglas starred in a King Vidor film, Man Without a Star in 1955, with Claire Trevor and Jeanne Crain and I was 17 in 1962 when he starred in the modern-day Western, Lonely are the Brave -- a film about a man and his horse. Douglas played the main character John W Burns, who refused to join modern society.

Douglas said Lonely are the Brave was his favorite movie.

In the film, Burns is a cowboy who just can't get down from the saddle and join the real world -- a world full of rules...and a new land full of cars and airplanes. Burns discovers his friend is in the local jailhouse. So, he arranges a fight at a tavern and gets what he wants, a night in the slammer to see his buddy. One thing led to another and Burns finds himself with some added jail time. Of course, he'll have none of that. He tells his buddy goodbye and escapes, finds his horse and heads for the mountains.

The local sheriff, played by Walter Matthau, gives chase. The rest of the movie is classic Douglas...and his horse, of course.

Fast forward to 1980. I was a customer service supervisor in Phoenix and was in the midst of a twenty-year career in the airline industry. This was long before I was forced to make a living as a sportswriter and years after the airline business turned on hard times -- due to the deregulation of the industry.

I remember it was typical warm day. All our flights were running late -- due mainly to bad weather in Denver, Colorado. That, of course, made it tough on the customers, especially the ones that had connections to Los Angeles.

Well, to make a long story short, it was my job to get an "important person" off our plane, hustle him onto the passenger seat of our tug and rush him across the ramp to the connecting flight to Los Angeles.

There were just moments to spare.

I quickly grabbed the customer's carry-on bag and had the gentleman take a seat as I floored the tug and sped off. The flight attendant was waiting patiently at the top of the steps and the workers were ready to push the plane backward.

The gentleman looked at me, grabbed his carry-on, smiled and said: "Thank you, Sonny!"

Kirk Douglas waved goodbye and boarded the aircraft.

Forty years later, Douglas would say his final goodbye to his family at his home in Beverly Hills, California.